EcoWaste Coalition is a public interest network of community, church, school, environmental and health groups pursuing sustainable solutions
to waste, climate change and chemical issues facing the Philippines and the world.

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28 June 2010

Litter-Free Inauguration: A Test for Environmental Citizenship

Quezon City. The EcoWaste Coalition, an environmental network promoting clean, healthy and safe environment, today made a last ditch effort to encourage people attending the June 30 inauguration in Luneta of President-elect Benigno S. Aquino III (P-Noy) not to litter.

“Our support for P-Noy should go beyond flashing the ‘Laban’ sign and wearing yellow shirts. We need to exercise environmental citizenship and strive to think and act green, now more than ever,” said Roy Alvarez, President, EcoWaste Coalition.

Environmental citizenship, the EcoWaste Coalition explains, is an affirmation that we, the people, are part and parcel of a larger ecosystem and that each and everyone has the obligation to preserve and protect the environment upon which the future of our society depends.

“We all need to take action on behalf of Mother Earth,” Alvarez pointed out.

The auspicious inauguration of P-Noy this coming Wednesday provides a great opportunity for the people, especially among Noynoy’s campaign volunteers and supporters, to show off their environmental citizenship by keeping the historic Luneta clean.

“We do not want to see a repeat of the widespread littering that tarnished the huge rally and concert by then presidential bet Noynoy Aquino and his ticket last May 2 at the People Power Monument on EDSA,” he said.

“Let us all commit to a litter-free celebration this time by taking full responsibility for our trash and by picking up after ourselves. Let this be our first shared commitment to the change that we all seek,” he said.

“Not littering, not tossing cigarette butts and chewed-out gums, not spitting and urinating in public are simple acts of environmental citizenship that will go a long way in fixing our mounting sanitation and hygiene problems,” Alvarez emphasized.

Aside from not littering, citizens can lessen the climate impact of the inauguration by walking, cycling, carpooling or taking mass transport to Luneta to cut on vehicular emissions.

The tens of thousands of inaugural attendees, including the VIPs, should really consider carpooling to reduce air pollution as well as not to add to the anticipated traffic and parking woes, the EcoWaste Coalition stated.

By exercising environmental citizenship, the EcoWaste Coalition says, we help P-Noy in realizing his avowed commitment to protect the environment during his six-year term of office.

“Lalabanan natin ang sinumang wawasak sa kalikasan,” P-Noy declared in his famous political ad “Hindi Ako Magnanakaw” where he laid out his social contract with the Filipino people, including his pledge to fight against environmental foes.

Members of the EcoWaste Coalition will join government personnel and volunteers from other civic groups as well as schools in the post-inauguration cleanup in Luneta.

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is a public interest network of community, church, school, environmental and health groups pursuing sustainable solutions to waste, climate change and chemical issues facing the Philippines and the world.